-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Elvis was singing in the men 's room .

But I 'd gotten used to that .

This time , though , there was something new .

And it led me , after all these years , to the legendary Barbara Hearn .

A little explanation -- all right , a lot of explanation -- is in order :

There 's a restaurant in Naples , Florida , called BrickTop 's . I stop in there occasionally when I 'm in town .

In the men 's restroom , every time I 've gone in , Elvis Presley 's voice is singing . Oddly , his voice is not heard out in the restaurant itself . But in the restroom , the voice is there nonstop . `` Are You Lonesome Tonight ? '' , '' -LRB- Marie 's the Name -RRB- His Latest Flame '' ... the Elvis-in-the-men 's - room playlist is rather eclectic .

The other night I was eating at the restaurant and , of course , Elvis was singing in the men 's room . But there had been an addition to the restroom dÃ © cor since my last visit six months or so ago .

There was a framed , autographed photo on the wall , of a young Elvis smiling next to a dark-haired woman . The autograph was hers . The signature : Barbara Hearn Smith .

For Presley aficionados , the name Barbara Hearn is as historic as that of Martha Washington or Betsy Ross or Mary Todd Lincoln . She was Elvis 's hometown girlfriend in Memphis at the beginning of 1956 , just before his career hit the stratosphere . That was the year everything changed ; by the time it was over , Presley 's old life was in the rear-view mirror . And part of that old life , presumably , was Barbara Hearn .

But now , in the dwindling weeks of 2011 , in the BrickTop 's men 's room , here was Elvis singing , and here was Barbara Hearn 's autograph . A closer inspection of the handwriting revealed that she was saying she had dined at another BrickTop 's , in Nashville , Tennessee .

So she still strides the American continent ? I had to find her .

I did -- at the Holly Tree Manor Bed and Breakfast in Trenton , Tennessee , which she and her husband of 50 years , Jim Smith , own and run . She 's 74 , and she laughed out loud when I told her where I had found her photo .

`` Well , I suppose it 's all right if my name is on a restroom wall , '' she said . `` It 's better than if my phone number was up there . ''

She said that she and her husband had been having lunch at the BrickTop 's in Nashville when a waiter had overheard them talking about Elvis . When he realized that she had actually known Elvis , he said that the boss of the place -- Joe Ledbetter -- was a huge Presley fan . Jim Smith went out to their car , where he knew there was a photo of Elvis and Barbara ; he brought it into the restaurant , and she signed it so the waiter could give it to the boss when he came in .

-LRB- I got in touch with Ledbetter , who runs all six BrickTop 's locations , most of which are in the South . He told me he 'd had copies made of the photo , and ordered that they be put in nice frames and hung in the men 's and women 's restrooms of all his restaurants . He said that the nonstop Elvis songs do not discriminate by gender : They are in the women 's rooms as well as in the men 's rooms . Why ? He loves Elvis . Why not play Elvis 's music in the restaurants themselves -- why just in the bathrooms ? `` It would drive some customers nuts to hear it for so long . In the restrooms , you 're just there for a few minutes . '' -RRB-

But back to Barbara Hearn : She said she first met Elvis when she was working at Goldsmith 's Department Store in Memphis with a friend named Dixie Locke , who was dating Presley . When Dixie and Elvis went their separate ways , he asked Barbara if he could take her out .

`` People sometimes say that Elvis and I went steady for a year , '' she told me . `` I always correct them . I went steady with Elvis for a year . Elvis ? Well , he did n't go steady with anyone . ''

But she was his girlfriend during his remarkable ascent in 1956 . There is a famous photograph , taken by Alfred Wertheimer inside the home on Audubon Drive in Memphis that Presley shared with his parents -LRB- this was pre-Graceland -RRB- . In the photo , Barbara is prim in a white dress with dark polka-dots ; Elvis is slouched and shirtless .

`` People do n't understand what 's in that picture , '' she told me . `` He had just been outside standing in his new swimming pool . It was just being filled up , with a garden hose . I was dressed to go out with him for the evening , all gussied up . And what we 're doing is , he had just taken the train back from New York , where he had recorded some new songs for RCA Victor . He had brought back the recordings -- they had not been released yet . We were listening to one of them . He wanted to know if I thought it was any good . I said yes , I thought it was . It was ` Do n't Be Cruel . ' ''

Soon enough he went to Hollywood ; by the end of that year , he would be bringing Natalie Wood to Memphis to meet his parents . -LRB- `` I did n't hold it against him at all , '' Barbara told me . `` If the roles had been reversed , and I had been the one to go to Hollywood and I 'd met Gregory Peck , I would have brought Gregory Peck back to Memphis with me . '' -RRB-

She eventually went to work in Washington for one of Tennessee 's U.S. senators , Estes Kefauver . It was there that she met her future husband . She saw Elvis only infrequently over the years , and never lost her affection toward him . `` That year of 1956 , I saw him go from being barely famous to a super-duper star , '' she said . `` From a boy to a man . ''

And now , more than half a century later , there they are , in the restaurant restrooms , accompanied by the sound of his voice . She said she 'd had no idea , until I told her .

`` What a hoot , '' she said , and laughed again .

`` He 's a friend who never stops giving . ''

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene .

@highlight

Bob Greene says he saw a framed photo of a woman with Elvis Presley

@highlight

The woman , he learned , was Elvis 's hometown sweetheart just before he made it big

@highlight

Barbara Hearn Smith now lives in Tennessee and has fond memories of Elvis

@highlight

Greene : She said when his career took off that year , 1956 , he went from boy to man